Sunday, January 18, 2015

True Crime Roundup V

According to these articles, in the '20s Prohibition was being vigorously, if nonsensically, enforced, drug addiction was on the rise, criminals weren't being prosecuted vigorously enough, and there was concern that young boys were rotting their brains with pulp fiction.~ "Rum at Sea" (1923) [3 pages]:

. . . There seems to be a very general feeling among the papers, irrespective of their attitude toward Prohibition, that it would not be becoming for the Government to profit from the sale of liquor on the ships it actually owns, while forbidding such sale on foreign-owned ships in American waters. . . . — THE LITERARY DIGEST (May 12, 1923)

~ "Our Million Drug Addicts" (1923) [2 pages]:

. . . To stop illicit distribution suddenly, with more than 50 per cent. of the physicians of the country still adhering to the 'vice' theory of opiate addiction, would only add to the suffering of thousands of innocent addicts who are forced by our laws to depend upon smugglers and peddlers for their narcotic supply. — THE LITERARY DIGEST (August 25, 1923)

~ " 'America First' - In Crime" (1923) [1 page]:

A 'SPORTING PUBLIC' which showers on the criminal, if he escapes, the sympathy usually extended to athletic and movie heroes, is largely to blame for the crime record of this country. This, at any rate, is the impression left in the minds of many American editors who are commenting on the vigorous indictment of our national lawlessness to be found in a recent report . . . — THE LITERARY DIGEST (September 15, 1923)

~ "What the Boys Are Reading" (1923) [1 page]:

. . . Dime novels began as rather good historical novels; at their worst they were no more than exciting stories written sometimes, but not always, in careless English. They were never immoral; on the contrary they reeked of morality. . . . — THE LITERARY DIGEST(September 15, 1923)